Resources: Data

Medicare's Nursing Home Compare database

The nursing home information is composed of two parts: (1) inspections that find "deficiencies" in the home and (2) ratings out of five stars for each nursing home in a number of parameters.

Deficiency data are a result of both routine inspection and individual complaints. The information ranges from 2004 to present. Deficiencies are characterized by their severity, "A" being the least severe and "L" being the most severe. AHCJ has included the most severe of the deficiencies, letters "G" through "L."

In the second part, most nursing homes are given between one and five stars. According to the Medicare ratings Web site "nursing homes with 5 stars are considered to have much above average quality and nursing homes with 1 star are considered to have quality much below average." Each nursing home is given an overall rating, as well as three specific ratings: health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. The Medicare ratings Web site has specific information regarding each of the parameters.

Excel pivot tables are a powerful way to organize, interpret and manipulate numerical data. In this tip sheet , reporters will learn the skills necessary to apply these tables in real-world situations, including analyzing the Nursing Home Compare data.